Features

Law annex to open

Written by Katherine Hedland Hansen

May 17, 2010

The School of Law Annex, new home to the School of Law’s thriving clinical and externship programs, opens June 1 at 1215 E. Columbia St., less than a block from Sullivan Hall. The Annex also provides needed classrooms and offices, a multipurpose room for law school events and a larger space for student publications.

The space had been used as a facilities warehouse, but has been transformed into a state-of-the-art academic building designed to meet LEED Gold certification. Finishing touches are being completed, and offices will begin to move next week. A dedication will be held May 27.

“This university is all about transformation,” Interim Dean Annette Clark said. “We have transformed this space, our students’ lives and legal education. “This is a commitment to educating our students in the complex art and ethos of the law.”

With new programs and additional faculty, the School of Law has outgrown Sullivan Hall, which opened 10 years ago and has already been remodeled. The $10 million annex remodel adds more than 20,300 square feet to the law school.

The Ronald A. Peterson Law Clinic provides students the opportunity to work on real cases through a variety of clinics, including Youth Advocacy Clinic, Immigration Clinic, International Human Rights or Domestic Violence Clinic. The Externship Program allows students to work in judicial chambers or other practice settings to gain invaluable work experience before graduation.

The annex will have four new classrooms and workspace for the Seattle University Law Review and the Seattle Journal for Social Justice.

“This is a sign of the way legal education is changing and being delivered in a new way,” University President Steve Sundborg, S.J., said. “It’s a sign of the growing status and reputation of this law school.”